Ah the Dordogne, and the town of Limieul at the confluence
of the River Vezere and the River Dordogne.
Camping la ferme de Perdigat is a fantastic site nestling at the base of
tree-lined hills along the Vezere. It’s
run by a husband and wife who’ve had the site for many years and they are
incredibly welcoming and have a lovely pool and restaurant/bar area set inside
an old barn which still has some of the old farm instruments fastened to the
walls. They had something going on, in a
very relaxed way, each evening, be it a bbq, band night with Monsieur on his
guitar and a couple of his friends on accordian and pipes, pizza evening,
boules...
We had given B,A and T the choice of evening meals for the week,
so in the weekly shop we lots of interesting ingredients.
We were treated to the following:
Ben’s bistro treated us to: Starters
– Mini meringues topped with creme fraiche and grapes
Main
– Cheese burgers as big as your head and frites
Dessert
– Chocolate brioche
Amy’s delicious diner created Starters - foie gras and fig and nut boursin (separately on toast)
Main
– Omelette, frites and green salad
Dessert
– Daddy’s special toasts with cream cheese and jam
Tom’s tremendous rest’t had Starters
– pate and saucisson
Main
– sausage and tomato pasta
Dessert
– ‘special’ chocolate pots and cream
On the 15th we left the site and cycled from the
farm into Limieul along the cycle track that Kev had come across after his
early morning mountain bike round route or ‘boucle’. We had a fab time with all 5 of us on our
bikes cycling along the dusty path, across the grass lawn infront of a
beautiful chateau that had been converted into gites, alongside fields of sunflowers,
apple trees and tobacco plants (yes I couldn’t believe it either but the smell
was very distinct and we saw them drying in large racks the next time we cycled
passed). Unfortunately some of the crops
were getting a good dousing from a large water system which was hitting about
50 feet of track. We all followed Kev
like sheep and by the time we got through to the other end we were pretty
soaked and laughing our heads off (well most of us anyway, a little pink
someone wasn’t very happy with her Mummy and Daddy at all!) We wandered around Limieul up and up through
the cobbled streets that wound around the town and finished off the trip with
Artisan icecreams and for Kev an artisan beer –yum! We joined several families for a river swim
in the fading afternoon sunshine then retraced our steps back along the track,
this time the pipe had fortunately finished its irrigation for the day. We managed to skype Kev’s Mum for her
birthday (I was a lovely beetroot colour having run around the block following
my latest instructions from ‘couch to 10k’, yes I was managing to keep it up). We dined at Ben’s Bistro that night.
The following day we headed to L’Abbaye de Cadouin for a
Medieval day. Lining the town’s square
were jugglers, imps on stilts who Tom took an instant dislike to, bands and dancers,
a blacksmith making knives, old fashioned wooden games to play with, archery
for everyone to have a go at and many stalls selling medieval style clothes,
jewellery, trinkets, knives. At night
they were holding an evening banquet, a candlelit procession around the abbey
and as a finale a fire spectacular, but we decided to head home as proceedings
didn’t start until 9.
We spent the
remainder of the afternoon lazing around the pool and as mentioned were treated
to an Amy special tea.
The 17th was a relaxed site day. Kev had headed off mountain biking around the
wooded hills and valleys of La Bugue for a couple of hours so we lazy lie-ins
didn’t rise until 9, then breakfasted leisurely with copious cups of coffee. The children went off to the play area for
football practice as Mia had informed us that it was the first day of the
Saturday morning season and I therefore wandered down to the pool and swam for
an hour, on my own in the pool, which was surrounded by cherry and marron trees
that provided enough shade for cover in the late afternoon but not too much in
the morning to make it chilly. I spent
an idyllic hour letting my mind wander.
Lunch was a simple but delicious of melted cheese on toasted baguette
with green salad washed down with a glass or two of rose. The children feasted on a picnic in the small
red wendy house in the park. Afternoon
school arrived at camp but as predicted not everyone’s mind was focused on lessons,
we’re all much better in the morning!
Next day was busy in holiday terms, with the alarm going off
at 8.05. The van was cool and dark. I was very tempted to switch it off and go
back to sleep but made a supreme effort and set off on my morning run just
after 8.15. I left camp and threaded my
way up the dusty pale yellow road between fields of sunflowers, plum and apple
trees, passed the artist’s house where last night came sounds of drums,
accordians and singing, around the mound and then right passed the gite with
the perigordian tower along the row of poplar trees which provided shade to the
small herd of limousin cattle and back along the river bank to camp. Having rinsed all of yesterdays wash and hung
the clothes up, so creating a widow twanky effect at camp we set off to meet the
sangliers of MonteMart.
Provided with three large carrier bags of stale bread we
descended passed a stubble field and a large open 4 Ha enclosure, wooded in one
area and with a large wallow pool of oozing mud. There were 6 enclosures of similar type with
animals at different stages – juvenilles, mothers and babies, mothers with
dominant boars and babies which were adorable with their dappled and fawn
coloured coats. The sanglier (wild
boar), unlike a domestic pig, has a really long snout, thin face, arched back
that falls away at the rear and a very long tail that it switches
continuously. Only the boars appeared to
have the tusks and they stood approx 1 metre at their shoulder – they also
tasted delicious in a rillette! In the
afternoon we headed to the caves of Rouffignac where we saw beautiful lined
drawings dating back 15000 years of bison, mammoth, ibex and woolly
rhinocerous. It was hard to believe
that the people who drew these animals in such detail would have actually seen
these animals walking around the outside of this cave’s entrance. We also saw scratches from the cave bears
that had lived there before man had come to the region and where they had
scoured out nests from the soft clay, which had since hardened, as they
prepared to hibernate.
Kev cycled back from Rouffignac and in the evening we
prepared to attend ‘la marche sous la lune’ in Limieul. It sounded idyllic but on arrival it was
simply a large repas. The scene looked
fantastic with 100s of people dining along trestle tables beside the river,
eating from stalls selling vietnamese food, pig on a spit and potatoes, greek,
indian and french food and lashings of beer and wine. Sadly we had eaten already so we headed back
to camp in the last of the sun’s rays and as the full moon rose in the
sky. Ben rode out ahead with a head
torch under his cycle helmet whilst Ames and Tom snuggled under fleecy blankets
in the trailer behind Kev. It sounds and
was idyllic. The camp was holding a
large bbq of its own so we sat and drank a glass of local beer and listened to
the band. Tom and I had a fantastic time
dancing together, first at the table then we moved onto the grass and finally
out onto the farmyard. The large barn
roof above us was silhouetted in the silvery pale moonlight. We left just after 10 but the music floated out
in the night air for a good couple of hours.
These guys know how to repas, we need to bring it back to the Island!
We left Limieul on 20th and headed to one of our
favourite spots in France, beautiful Brantome and the village of Cantillac, the
home of la famille McNally. As their
lovely home is located on the top of a hill, we had to plan our route of ascent
very carefully. We left the van on one
side of the hill and did a reccy, then Kev dropped us off at Sue and Simon’s
along with the 5 bikes, awning and poles then he and Simon retrieved the van
and brought it up the least vertiginous back route. Within 15 minutes the van was secured on
their gravel drive and we were catching up under the arbour over their
patio. We had a wonderful couple of days
together.
The first night was the usual
let’s stay up late, drink lots of vino and put the world to rights. The next day we managed to get out for a bike
ride to St Jean de Cole (just) along a green way and then spent the afternoon
larking in the pool. With not such a late following night Sue very
kindly let me spring clean the van (duvets, bedding, clothes, flooring,
upholstery, cupboards- the whole van looked the shiniest it had all Summer and
smelt so clean and fresh!! The boys went
out for a mountain bike ride in the afternoon, whilst Sue and I ventured into
Brantome with Ames and Tom to feed the ducks and have a mooch around the
boutiques. It was baking and the heat
resonated from the stone walls. We were
glad to get back up to the pool for the last of the afternoon’s sun, which
lazily turned into evening with aperitifs on the pool patio which looks out
over a sea of trees and a relaxing dinner and late night chats. Many thanks to Sue, Simon and Ruairi for their
wonderful hospitality and the run of their beautiful home.
On the 23rd, with heavy hearts, we started our
journey north, a journey of 9 hours. All
went without a hitch and we arrived in Les Petit Anderlys just in time for our
last Lidl run and a sunset dinner.
Yesterday we walked to the market in Anderlys town, a little further
than we had expected. The weather really
had taken a turn for the worst and by late afternoon the rain had set in
(booooo!) Today we endeavoured to do
some last minute ‘french’ shopping then spent the afternoon hunkered down in
the rainy weather doing the last of the scrapbook challenge, writing blogs and
starting to pack the van up. The weather
is supposed to improve slightly for the next couple of days, but I think that it’s
time that we look to the north and head home to see our wonderful friends and
family. You have been in our thoughts
often and just wish you could have come with us, perhaps a little part of these
blogs have let you do so. Thanks for
sticking with me, it’s been an amazing adventure. We’re already planning to do it all again in
9 years time – roll on Oz!!!!
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